How often do you abort dives and why?

[Chocoholic]

I think this is a really useful topic.
I recently had the chance to dive with my niece on her first dive after cert. One of the main things I told her is "you can thumb a dive for any reason, don't feel the need to dive to prove anything". I should have taken that advice myself when I was her age.
I haven't ever thumbed a dive but I had a couple I should have, they turned out OK and are some of my favourite dives. Both were "trust me" dives in Mexico and I had no business inside the cenotes or cavern as a newer diver but I didn't know what I didn't know.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

I've never aborted a dive after a couple hundred. I (fortunately) have been able to sort myself out after any issues before I felt it necessary to abort. I see value in assessing the situation, and making an effort at resolving issues before aborting. If nothing else, it helps condition you psychologically.

On another note, remember that using your thumb to your buddy means abort, but spinning your finger means turn the dive. Be sure to use the one you mean.

EDIT: However, after reading the conditions under which you aborted your dives, you were fine doing so. First, slap the $#!+ out of your husband for not only holding you still while someone else strapped weight to you, but also for teasing you about calling dives. He deserves to be flogged in my opinion for violating the rule that anyone can call any dive at any time and no one else should make that person feel bad about it. If you're not comfortable, and you can't get over it, call it...period.

 

[mallbritton]

I'm curious...how often do you abort dives and why?

I've aborted 2.5 dives in a mere 24 dives. That's about 10%. I think that's ridiculously high, but perhaps a function of my beginner status.

That's not ridiculously high. As others have already said if you don't feel comfortable then call the dive. There is nothing for you to feel embarrassed about. I believe as you gain more experience you'll get more comfortable. But I would suggest not trying such challenging dives for right now, though. A rule of thumb I believe in is to always "dive your certs."

As a Divemaster I've called a small handful of dives, but those were mainly for equipment failures. Burst hoses and once a free flowing alt. I once got separated from my buddy during my AOW course so I used the "one minute rule," went to the surface and waited. After the instruction came up we continued the dive.

 

[Ryszard R]

1. visibility less than 1 foot in the lake
2. new suit and too less weight- impossible to submerge
3. too stormy weather at the Baltic Sea

 

[Energyconsults]

I thumbed a dive on Saturday ... not that I had a lot of choice.

Got up early, packed the car and headed out to Whidbey Island ... a 75 mile drive with a short ferry ride in between. As I approached the side of the island where the dive site is located I started noticing the wind picking up. When I arrived at the site it was blowing like stink and the waves were crashing over the jetty. Took me about 1.5 milliseconds to decide it wasn't diveable today. Got in my car to head back.

Strike One

Just about then the phone rings. My friend John, who lives up near Anacortes is calling to ask me if there's any chance I could head up his way this week-end to help him clear some crab pots that had fouled his mooring line. Apparently the wind, waves and current had dragged the pots a considerable distance to where they'd snagged, and he wasn't able to clear them without going in the water. I informed him that as fate would have it, I was just 25 miles away and had all my gear in the car with me. So instead of heading south to go home, I headed north towards his house. I got up there and started hauling my gear down the hill toward his boat dock. But rainy conditions, steep hill, and heavy gear aren't a good combination. I slipped while carrying my tank, which landed valve first ... snapping the handle off the tank valve.

Strike Two

But I still had an option ... my AL40 pony had plenty of gas in it for a quick trip down the mooring line to unfoul a couple crab pots. I wasn't thrilled about getting in alone without a backup air supply, but it was a pretty straightforward job, and would only take a few minutes. So I finished hauling gear down, went to put on my drysuit, and the neck seal split.

Strike Three

And I'm out. He's pulling the boat for the winter next week-end, so we really wanted to get this job done. I told him I'd be back the next day with my spare suit and enough gear to handle any additional mishaps.

Drove 210 miles that day, plus two ferry rides, and never even got wet. I did go back Sunday morning and got the job done ... and feasted on fresh Dungeness crab for dinner that night.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Would you be interested in doing any diving this next week (week of 1-2-2017). I'm in town working and need to schedule dives on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Are ya game? I'm in Anacortes but will go about anywhere!

 

[drbill]

I can think of only a handful of dives I've called in about 54 years of diving. However, early on there is probably a much greater chance of aborting a dive due to lack of experience or a high level of caution. Aborting a dive because of unfavorable conditions or physical problems may well be a sign of intelligence!

 

[Nicos]

Aborted 1 out of 40.
We took a left turn a bit too early to get to the dive site (we were doing orientation training). We got caught in a strong current we kept going for a bit and looked to get out of the current, but quickly decided to ascend before getting carried away too far from the boat.

 

[stiebs]

I can recall only two dives that I've called once we got wet. The first was on a boat dive where my buddy felt way overweight on entry and ditched their weight.

The second was a shore entry cavern dive. On the previous dive my primary light had a minor flood, but was still working. But I still had two backups and it was just a cavern, not a cave. On the swim out to the entry point, my buddy's fin strap broke off. He fixed it and we continued. On descent at 18m, my buddy's camera housing had flooded. We decided that was enough, and called the dive.

 

[Chavodel8en]

From my memory, of my approx. 120 dives:

1) Once aborted a boat dive (Monterey area). We all dropped down and had about 6 inches viz. Horrible red tide. Even though as a Monterey diver you are used to bad viz, this was very disconcerting. I had no idea where I or my buddy was or if I was going up or down. I had to hold my depth gauge directly in front of my face and even then I would lose visual on it. Everyone popped back up immediately. Boat was very cool about it, they gave us a future complimentary trip.

2) Once aborted a shore dive in Monterey area as my reg was in a constant free flow. I shut down my tank and figured I would do the surface swim out, open the tank and go ahead and do the dive, but when I did that, it just flowed even harder, so I swam back.

I have had a computer die on me when I didn't have my depth gauge with me as backup. Maybe not a good choice, but I continued the dive. It was a familiar shore dive, so I figured I would either rely on my buddy to judge depth or use the shore profile.

However, I have called several plans to dive before even getting in the car. Last minute look at conditions -- look iffy - nah, Im not making the 2 hr drive. So I've never been geared up, then looked at bad conditions and aborted -- but that's probably because I never made the drive.